Members of the Centre of South Asian Studies
Centre Chair
Francesca Orsini
Francesca Orsini is on sabbatical from 1 January 2010 to 30 August 2010.
Deputy Chair
Lawrence Saez
De facto chair from 1 January 2010 to 30 August 2010.
Centres and Programmes Office:
Office Manager
Executive Officer
Academic Staff
Daud Ali
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
History of medieval South India: courtly culture in early medieval India
- Tel: 020 7898 4627
- Email: da7@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 303
Rochana Bajpai
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Contemporary political theory, particularly multiculturalism; methodology, particularly political ideologies; modern Indian politics
- Tel: 020 7898 4750
- Email: rb6@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 209
- Office Hours: Fri. 3:30 - 5
Crispin Branfoot
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Architecture, Sculpture and Painting; Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography, Archaeology and Material Religion; South India
- Tel: 020 7898 4450
- Email: crispin.branfoot@soas.ac.uk
- Room: B311
Whitney Cox
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Sanskrit literature and literary theory, Tamil literature, intellectual and cultural history of South India, History of Saivism
- Tel: 020 7898 4368
- Email: wc3@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 458
- On Sabbatical:2009/10: Terms 2 & 3
Kate Crosby
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Buddhism of South and South East Asia; Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali literature, with particular reference to post- and non-canonical literature; Pali philology
- Tel: 020 7898 4771
- Email: kc21@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 329
- On Sabbatical:2009/10 (Term 2)
Philippe Cullet
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Law and environment, law and natural resources, intellectual property, water, human rights, international law, India.
- Tel: 020 7898 4651
- Email: pc38@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 223
Sonali Deraniyagala
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa: technical change and productivity in manufacturing, industrial policy, the impact of trade liberalisation on manufacturing performance
- Tel: 020 7898 4544
- Email: sd11@soas.ac.uk
Rachel Dwyer
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Hindi Cinema; Indian popular culture; Indian film; Hinduism; new middle classes; Mumbai/Bombay; Gujarati language and literature; Gujarati diaspora esp UK and East Africa; comparative Indian literature.
- Tel: 020 7898 4294
- Email: rd3@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 457
Dr Heather Elgood
Dr Heather Elgood is the Course Director of the Diploma in Asian Art. She is a specialist in Persian, Jain, Sultanate and Mughal manuscript painting as well as the ritual arts of Hinduism.
- Tel: 020 7898 4445
- Email: he2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: B312
Peter Flügel
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Jaina Studies; South Asian History & Culture; Anthropology & Sociology of Religion
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4776
- Email: pf8@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 564
Jonathan Goodhand
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
South and Central Asia; complex political emergencies, humanitarian aid; NGO capacity building, aid, conflict and development
- Tel: 020 7898 4483
- Email: jg27@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 296
- Office Hours: Tuesday 2-4pm
Almut Hintze
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Dr Hintze is the Zartoshty Brothers Reader in Zoroastrianism and currently Head of the Department of Study of Religions. She studied Indo-European philology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Oxford and earned her PhD in Indo-Iranian Studies at the University of Erlangen. After her habilitation in Berlin with a study of the semantics of “reward” in Ancient Iranian (Avestan) and Vedic Sanskrit texts, she spent a term at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Subsequently she became Research Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge and was appointed to the Zartoshty Brothers post at SOAS in 2001.
- Tel: 020 7898 4598
- Email: ah69@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 341
- Office Hours: Wednesday, 12–1
Stephen P Hughes
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
India, especially the Tamil-speaking south, and Sri Lanka: popular cinema, media theory, historical anthropology and visual anthropology
- Tel: 020 7898 4070
- Email: sh37@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 535
- Office Hours: Leave of absence all year (2009-10)
Michael J Hutt
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Nepali literature; the Nepali media; Nepali politics; Bhutanese refugees.
- Tel: 020 7898 4286
- Email: mh8@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 366
Arshi Khan
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Islamisation in Pakistan, Effectiveness of Zakat, Zia era
- Tel: 020 7898 4627
- Email: ak94@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 303
- Office Hours: Wednesdays from 5-6pm
Mushtaq Khan
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
South and South East Asia: institutional economics and political economy; the economics of rent seeking, corruption and patron-client networks; late industrialisation and the state
- Tel: 020 7898 4546
- Email: mk17@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 284
- Office Hours: Fridays 11.00am - 1pm
Prabha Kotiswaran
Criminal Law, Feminist Legal Theory, Law and Society
- Tel: 020 7898 4678
- Email: pk5@soas.ac.uk
Sunil Kumar
History of medieval South India: courtly culture in early medieval India
- Tel: 020 7898 4625
- Email: sk114@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 309
- Office Hours: Mondays 11:30 – 13:00 and by appointment
Martin W Lau
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Laws of South Asia; comparative environmental law, Islamic law
- Tel: 020 7898 4657
- Email: ml1@soas.ac.uk
Jens Lerche
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
South Asia; agrarian political economy; rural labour relations; governance and development
- Tel: 020 7898 4505
- Email: jl2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 295
- Office Hours: Thursday 2 - 4
Magnus Marsden
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Social anthropology of Pakistan, Central Asia and the Middle East; anthropology of religion (especially Islam), the interaction between religious and political transformations within and beyond South Asia and the Muslim world, as well as the study of transnational identity formations.
- Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4491
- Email: mm101@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 558
Matthew Mccartney
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Economic development and political economy of post-Independence South Asia. The state in late industrialisation. Macro-dynamics and industrialisation in India.
- Tel: 020 7898 4646
- Email: mm80@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 265
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 2pm - 4pm
Werner F Menski
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Classical and modern Hindu law; Muslim Law; Laws of South Asia; Family law; Comparative law; South Asians in the UK; Immigration law; Ethnic minorities
- Tel: 020 7898 4674
- Email: wm4@soas.ac.uk
Alessandra Mezzadri
Member
International trade, global commodity chains, industrial development and labour markets in developing countries, social structures and inequality; structures of production and labour in the Indian export-oriented garment industry
- Tel: 0207 898 4533
- Email: am99@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4414
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 10am-12pm
Satoshi Miyamura
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Regions: South & East Asia Countries: India, Japan Subjects: Development Economics, Labour Economics, Labour-management bargaining, Mathematical economics, Statistics, Econometrics, Research methods in Economics.
- Tel: 020 7898 4544
- Email: sm97@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4425
- Office Hours: Mondays 11am - 1pm
David Mosse
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
India, especially Tamil Nadu and adivasi western India; caste and religion, dalit politics, vernacular Christianity, environmental history, common property resources, indigenous irrigation, participatory rural development, aid agencies, anthropology of development
- Tel: 020 7898 4426
- Email: dm21@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 547
- Office Hours: Research leave 2009-10
Rakesh Nautiyal
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Hindi language
- Tel: 020 7898 4304
- Email: rn17@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 454
Matthew J Nelson
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies; Member, London Middle East Institute
Politics of South Asia; Politics of Islam
- Tel: 020 7898 4742
- Email: mn6@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 216
- Office Hours: (on leave 2009/10)
Paolo Novak
Convenor of the course Globalisation, Borders and Development and Admission Tutor for the MSc Globalisation and Development.
- Tel: 020 7898 4214
- Email: pn4@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 368
- Office Hours: Tuesday 10 - 12
Francesca Orsini
Chair, Centre of South Asian Studies
Hindi Literature; North Indian literary cultures; Hindi; Urdu.
- Tel: 020 7898 4242
- Email: fo@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 419
- On Sabbatical:2009/10: Terms 2 & 3
Caroline Osella
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Kerala, South Asia, South Asian diaspora: ethnophysiology, concepts of person, gender, ethnicity, psychology and anthropology.
- Tel: 020 7898 4427
- Email: co6@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 553
Ulrich Pagel
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
History of Buddhism in Tibet, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Kanjur Studies, Vinaya, Religions of Central Asia, Tibetan, Sanskrit.
- Tel: 020 7898 4782
- Email: up1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: Room 332
- Office Hours: Wed, 13.00h to 15.00h
Krishna Pradhan
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Nepali Language
- Tel: 020 7898 4304
- Email: kp15@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 460
Shital Pravinchandra
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
South Asian Literature; Postcolonialism.
- Tel: 020 7898 4292
- Email: sp35@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 463
Theodore Proferes
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
- Tel: 020 7898 4637
- Email: tp17@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 378
William Radice
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Bengali language and literature; Tagore; Michael Madhusudan Dutt; 19th century Bengal; literary translation; poetry in Bangladesh.
- Tel: 020 7898 4295
- Email: wr@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 468
Parvathi Raman
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
The Indian Community in South Africa; Politics and identity in South Africa; African and Asian Communities in Britain; Political and cultural issues in Diaspora Studies; Historical anthropology; Philosophical issues in anthropology.
- Tel: 020 7898 4434
- Email: pr1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 545
Rahul Rao
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
International Security; Indian foreign policy; Political Theory; Social Movements; Human Rights
- Tel: 020 7898 4534
- Email: rr18@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4424
Peter Robb
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
The history of modern South Asia; early Calcutta, c.1780-1830, Indian agrarian history, especially Bihar and Eastern India.
- Tel: 0207 898 4614
- Email: pr4@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 4411
Lawrence Sáez
Deputy Chair (De facto chair from 1.1.2010 to 30.08.10), Centre of South Asian Studies
Comparative and international politics: international political economy, comparative political economy, emerging markets; South Asia
- Tel: 020 7898 4725
- Email: ls4@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 204a
- Office Hours: Mon 11-12 / Wed 2-3
Pasquale Scaramozzino
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Macroeconomics; fiscal policy; applied econometrics
- Tel: 020 7898 4055
- Email: ps6@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 516
- Office Hours: Monday 11-1pm or By Appointment
Naresh Sharma
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Urdu and Hindi language
- Tel: 020 7898 4296
- Email: ns19@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 454
Edward Simpson
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Islam in South Asia; politics, ethnography, and society of Gujarat; social theory and the western Indian Ocean; the ethnography of reconstruction after catastrophic natural disasters
- Tel: 020 7898 4481
- Email: es7@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 561
- Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3pm
Subir Sinha
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
South Asia: institutions of development, NGOs, social movements; the environment, common property institutions and resource use
- Tel: 020 7898 4495
- Email: ss61@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 287
- Office Hours: Wednesday 2-4 pm
Tadeusz Skorupski
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Buddhist Studies; philosophical and religious doctrines; literature; iconography Buddhist iconography; Buddhist rituals; Buddhist doctrines; Buddhist history
- Tel: 020 7898 4775
- Email: ts1@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 331
Sarah Stewart
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
- Tel: 020 7898 4270
- Email: ss7@soas.ac.uk
- Room: M109
Renate Söhnen-Thieme
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Sanskrit language and literature; classical Indian religions; folklore and music of Baltistan
- Tel: 020 7898 4293
- Email: rs2@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 448
Shabnum Tejani
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Nineteenth and twentieth century social and intellectual history, particularly of the Bombay Presidency; communalism and nationalism in India; debates around secularism and religious intolerance
- Tel: 020 7898 4613
- Email: st40@soas.ac.uk
Simona Vittorini
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Nationalism; South Asian politics; modern Indian politics
- Tel: 020 7898 4757
- Email: sv4@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 218
- Office Hours: Thurs. 3 - 4
D Richard Widdess
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
North Indian art-music; history of music in South Asia; Newar music; music theory and analysis
- Tel: 020 7898 4685
- Email: rw4@soas.ac.uk
Amina Yaqin
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Urdu language and literature; post-colonial literature and theory; gender studies; South Asian literatures in English; feminism in a Third World context; gender and politics in Pakistan
- Tel: 020 7898 4305
- Email: ay@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 470
Cosimo Zene
Member, Centre of South Asian Studies
Anthropology of religion, theory in the study of religions, continental philosophy, Gramsci and religion, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, minorities (Dalits), mysticism and heresy, non-Western Christianities, Mediterranean anthropology;
South-Asia (India, Bangladesh), Sardinia.
- Tel: 020 7898 4783
- Email: zc@soas.ac.uk
- Room: 340
